Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office plans to open law enforcement museum

WOODBURY — Looking to educate Gloucester County about the area’s history of law enforcement, Prosecutor Sean Dalton and other law enforcement officials are planning to open a Law Enforcement Museum at Gloucester County College.

Called the Gloucester County Law Enforcement Educational Resource Center, a room at the college will be available to tell the story of everything from police departments to past court cases.

Gloucester County has an interesting history with law enforcement, spanning decades of emerging agencies and blossoming police departments.

For a long period of time, when much of southern New Jersey was still covered in farmland, the area was mostly patrolled by state police, riding by on motorcycles and on horseback through sparsely populated towns.

According to current county clerk and former county sheriff and Franklin Township police chief Jim Hogan, many of today’s large police departments in the county, including ones in Deptford and Washington Township, weren’t organized until the late 1960s.

When Hogan was called recently to help retell a local police department’s history, it became apparent that a larger effort to tell the county’s police history might be needed.

“They were asking about the department from when I was there. I said, ‘You can’t forget this guy, you can’t forget that guy,’ ” said Hogan.

It’s a sentiment shared by fellow former police chief and current borough administrator for Westville, Bill Bittner.

He can remember when he first started working in law enforcement, only making about $6,000 a year.

Now, having been involved in a number of cases over the years, with a wealth of knowledge and a well-aged perspective on a lifelong career, Bittner wants others to be able to get a realistic take on law enforcement.

“I think a lot of the public is unaware of the rich history of law enforcement in Gloucester County,” said Bittner. “Hopefully, this will pique the interest of the next generation.”

Dalton said that the museum will highlight a number of areas, including the Gloucester County SWAT team, Emergency Response Team and K-9 units throughout the area.

And while they envision police academies and local schools being able to use the museum for educational purposes, Bittner mentioned that he would also like to see a substantial part of the museum’s exhibits dedicated to officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld added that some exhibits would use recorded interviews from former police officers to illustrate the county’s long running police history.

As for particular cases or pieces of evidence that they want featured, Dalton mentioned the well publicized 2004 case in which two men were convicted of the brutal 1979 murder of 82-year-old Rose Twells, the widow of a former Woodbury mayor.

“The work that was initially done [in that case] was a foundation for the next generation of law enforcement — to make sure the people responsible were brought to justice,” said Dalton, who took a moment to praise the county’s police officers.

“The pursuit of justice that these guys do never ends,” the prosecutor said.

The center will hold an inaugural fundraising event at Auletto’s Catering in Almonesson on Jan. 25, 2013, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. All proceeds will go toward funding the interior displays of the museum.

For more information about the fundraiser or to reserve tickets at $25 per person, call Joe Getsinger at 856-681-6209.